OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A man found living in an underground bunker in an Olympia park has filed what could be a $1 million lawsuit for being wrongly arrested and charged with the rape of an 11-year-old girl two years ago.
David Lynch was secretly living in an elaborate bunker he built into the hillside of an Olympia city park at the time the girl was raped at her nearby home.
Police found Lynch about a mile from the house and started questioning him, though he did not fit the attacker's description.
In a lawsuit filed against the city of Olympia and several of its police officers, attorney Charles Lane claims Lynch was not properly read his rights, that Lynch denied any wrongdoing and asked for an attorney, but police continued to push Lynch toward a confession and a total mental breakdown.
"The severe mental anguish he suffered during that time period he still has to deal with today," said Lane.
In addition to long-term mental health issues, Lynch's attorney said his client also developed blood clots during his incarceration, which requires daily use of blood thinners.
Although DNA evidence eventually cleared Lynch, his attorney said the physical and mental damage can't be undone. Lynch is suing for unlawful arrest and imprisonment.
"I think a jury could potentially reach a figure over $1 million," said Lane.
Olympia police later arrested and convicted Peter Inouye for the girl's rape. He was sentenced in January to 60 years in prison.
Link: http://www.kirotv.com/news/18995620/detail.html
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7 comments:
Why Women lie about rape
http://wemen.us/articles/views/15-why-women-lie-about-rape.html
This is beyond shameful. Both of them were having hard lives and this girl decided to make this young man's life worse.
OK, someone explain this to me - I don't see where the young girl lied about rape.
It sounds like she was actually raped and the police pinned it on the wrong person.
Someone is now in prison for raping an 11 year old girl.
Did I miss something important here?
It sounds like she was actually raped and the police pinned it on the wrong person.
That IS the problem. The police knew they had the wrong person, yet arrested and jailed an innocent man.
Yes she was raped, but this man didn't match the description she gave, they knew that, yet they continued to question him in hopes of getting a confession. This is sheer irresponsibility on the part of the police.
Other articles on this, such as This, show a gross negligence on the part of the police, in handling this. They didn't investigate, they grabbed someone they figured they could pin it on, without doing any real investigation. That is despicable.
verdict: give the cops involved each a 60-year sentence. Let us see how they fare amongst their fellow prisoners.
this will send a message to all cops to stop being thugs.
Good idea Norm.
The trail of an unlikely friendship between Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino began more than two decades ago, when she misidentified him as the man who raped her. Cotton was wrongfully convicted in 1985 based largely on Thompson-Cannino’s testimony, and he spent 10 years in prison before DNA testing proved his innocence. Today, they are close friends and travel the country speaking about the case and advocating criminal justice reforms especially relating to eyewitness misidentification.
On Tuesday, the two will release a major new book about their experience “Picking Cotton” written with author Erin Torneo. Cotton and Thompson-Cannino’s incredible and inspiring story will be featured on “60 Minutes” and in People Magazine in March.
Late one night in 1984, a man broke into Thompson-Cannino’s home and raped her at knifepoint. During the attack, she focused on studying the attacker’s features so she could identify him later. After the assault, she worked with police to create a composite sketch and would eventually identify Ronald Cotton in a lineup as the perpetrator. She was 100% sure it was him, she says, and was happy and relieved the day he was sentenced to life in prison. There was only one problem: she had the wrong man.
More than a decade later, DNA testing in the case proved Cotton’s innocence and implicated another man in the rape. Thompson-Cannino was shocked at the news. She couldn’t believe that she had chosen the wrong man and that her misidentification had played a role in such an injustice. Two years later, however, the two met face-to-face. They both had come to know that eyewitness misidentification is a common cause of wrongful convictions, and they agreed to work together prevent misidentifications and injustice. The new book tells the story of the case, Cotton’s exoneration and the unlikely friendship it sparked.
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